diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 996a606..20c5ef0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 <!-- next-header -->
 ## [Unreleased] - ReleaseDate
+### Fixed
+- [PR#54](https://github.com/EmbarkStudios/krates/pull/54) fixed an issue where the crates.io index was unconditionally opened, and synced, if the `prefer-index` feature was enabled, causing long stalls if using the crates.io sparse index instead.
+
 ## [0.13.0] - 2023-04-04
 ### Changed
 - [PR#53](https://github.com/EmbarkStudios/krates/pull/53) updated `cfg-expr` to 0.14 and `crates-index` to 0.19.
diff --git a/deny.toml b/deny.toml
index 1b1c53d..c7bd445 100644
--- a/deny.toml
+++ b/deny.toml
@@ -18,8 +18,10 @@ multiple-versions = "deny"
 skip = [
     # Doesn't matter
     { name = "hermit-abi" },
+]
+skip-tree = [
     # dev only but still sigh
-    { name = "windows-sys", version = "=0.42.0" },
+    { name = "windows-sys", version = "<0.48.0" },
 ]
 
 [sources]
diff --git a/src/builder.rs b/src/builder.rs
index 3a6c35c..ebe7f65 100644
--- a/src/builder.rs
+++ b/src/builder.rs
@@ -310,8 +310,10 @@ pub struct Builder {
     target_filters: Vec<TargetFilter>,
     workspace_filters: Vec<PathBuf>,
     exclude: Vec<crate::PkgSpec>,
-    workspace: bool,
     ignore_kinds: u32,
+    workspace: bool,
+    #[cfg(feature = "prefer-index")]
+    allow_git_index: bool,
 }
 
 impl Builder {
@@ -488,6 +490,18 @@ impl Builder {
         self
     }
 
+    /// Allow use of the crates.io git index.
+    ///
+    /// As of cargo 1.70.0, the git index for crates.io is no longer the default,
+    /// in favor of the _much_ faster spare HTTP index, it is highly recommended
+    /// to only set this option to true if you for some reason can't use the
+    /// HTTP index
+    #[cfg(feature = "prefer-index")]
+    pub fn allow_git_index(&mut self, allow: bool) -> &mut Self {
+        self.allow_git_index = allow;
+        self
+    }
+
     /// Builds a [`Krates`] graph using metadata that be retrieved via the
     /// specified metadata command. If `on_filter` is specified, it will be
     /// called with each package that was filtered from the graph, if any.
@@ -771,7 +785,7 @@ impl Builder {
         }
 
         #[cfg(feature = "prefer-index")]
-        let index = index::open();
+        let index = index::ComboIndex::open(self.allow_git_index);
 
         while let Some(pid) = pid_stack.pop() {
             let is_in_workspace = workspace_members.binary_search(pid).is_ok();
diff --git a/src/builder/index.rs b/src/builder/index.rs
index 7c72132..55e6724 100644
--- a/src/builder/index.rs
+++ b/src/builder/index.rs
@@ -4,6 +4,18 @@ pub(super) struct ComboIndex {
 }
 
 impl ComboIndex {
+    #[inline]
+    pub(super) fn open(allow_git: bool) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            git: if allow_git {
+                crates_index::Index::new_cargo_default().ok()
+            } else {
+                None
+            },
+            http: crates_index::SparseIndex::from_url("sparse+https://index.crates.io/").ok(),
+        }
+    }
+
     #[inline]
     fn krate(&self, name: &str) -> Option<crates_index::Crate> {
         // Attempt http first, as this will be the default in future cargo versions
@@ -15,14 +27,6 @@ impl ComboIndex {
     }
 }
 
-#[inline]
-pub(super) fn open() -> ComboIndex {
-    ComboIndex {
-        git: crates_index::Index::new_cargo_default().ok(),
-        http: crates_index::SparseIndex::from_url("sparse+https://index.crates.io/").ok(),
-    }
-}
-
 /// Due to <https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/11319>, we can't actually
 /// trust cargo to give us the correct package metadata, so we instead use the
 /// (presumably) correct data from the the index